Both England's Number 1 Mary Earps, and Australia's Number 18 Mackenzie Arnold, performed amazingly and admirably at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. In a match where the strikers are scoring goals willy-nilly, goalkeepers can feel left out but when they are called upon to save penalties, both in regular play and in penalty shootouts, they become national heroes. Admittedly Mary Earps couldn't do enough as England lost the Final 1-0 to a rampant Spain who played 3-6-1 to England's 3-5-2; just as Mackenzie Arnold ultimately save Australia as England came home 3-1 because 3-5-2 outplayed 4-4-2.
With Goalkeepers being superstars in their own right, the question being asked in the British press as it was here in Australia, is why kit suppliers weren't even selling replica goalkeeper strips in shops.
In a World Cup squad where goalkeepers make up 13% of all players, on the face of it it seems strange that a kit manufacturer would willingly give up 13% of sales. The unspoken truth is that they likely would have done their A/B testing and come to the conclusion that the number of sales was so weak that it simply wouldn't have warranted making and selling goalkeeper's kits. Goalkeeper's kits are almost an edge case as it is, because most of the time you won't find any goalkeepers' kits unless that keeper is massively massive.
In fact, I am prepared to say that in the history of replica kits, which only goes back as far back as about 1980 or so, that they only profitable replica goalkeeper's kit, was the Peter Schmeichel #1 kit for Manchester United, circa 1999 and at about the time that they won the Treble. That's it. One! One profitable replica goalkeeper's kit in four and a half decades of sales. It's pretty dismal.
The problem then, is not that Nike doesn't want to sell replica goalkeeper's kits for England's Number 1 Mary Earps or Australia's Number 18 Mackenzie Arnold, on the grounds of sexism, but rather Nike doesn't want to sell replica goalkeeper's kits because it can not spin a shilling out of it. Nike is a for profit business; which means that its motives are not as sinister as people would have you believe. Rather, Nike's motives as a for profit business, are just regular old capitalism. There is no conspiracy here beyond those two words "Hail Corporate!".
So then what? What to do? How do you solve a problem like capitalism? How do you keep a grim recession down? What's a word that nearly means capitalism? A "bottomless pit"? A "flippity-gibbet"? A "clown"? How do you keep a snowflake in your hand? The short answer is that you don't. The long answer is the same as the short answer but louder. Well as a member of the gallery with no real ability to change what is, then my solutions from the sidelines are as good as any.
The simple unavoidable fact with football kits is that you can not have two teams with the same kit, playing on at the same field at the same time. If a blue team meets a blue team, then one of them will have to play in something else. If a yellow team meets a yellow team, then one of them will have to play in something else. This is further complicated when you have a blue team who meets a yellow team, and their alternative kit is the same colour as what is on the park. If Australia and Sweden are playing and Australia is in mint and Sweden is in yellow, then that's fine but as Australia's home kit is already in yellow, then you can not very well have the goalkeeper also playing in yellow, as that would cause confusion on the pitch between the goalkeepers and the yellow team. The solutions to this unavoidable avoidable therefore are many.
Solution 1:
Goalkeepers should all collectively adopt some third colour that nobody has; across the tournament. This way, the yellow keeper and yellow away problem never happens. If all Nike goalkeepers in the world played in a peculiar shade of green, or pink, or black, then the kit maker could make one generic goalkeeper's kit and swap out the national crest where applicable. Job done.
Solution 2:
Teams should register their training kits as third kits. This not only solves the problem of having players on the sideline in a shirt that looks nothing like the rest of the players on the park, but solves the issue of running out of kits. As it is, fans mostly want to buy the home kit, a few will want the away kit, and because names and numbers can be assembled on the sport from a standard stock, the third kit can be made up as easily.
The issue with this is that particularly poorer nations and teams might not be able to negotiate with kit manufacturers to get third kits. Remember, some football associations and local clubs have miniscule budgets. If they have to buy in all of their kits, then they will usually arrange two sets of kits and the goalkeeper will get their own unique kit which actually serves as Solution 4 (see below).
Solution 3:
Combine Solution 1 and Solution 2. Teams should apply to register their away kits before a tournament starts. Let the organisers look at all possible home kits and then say that the away kits must all be wild. Let them run riot with stripes, stars, devices, quarters, hoops, sleeves and what not. Even if you have two white and blue teams on the pitch and one is in hoops and the other is in stripes, nobody is going to confuse that.
In a tournament like the World Cup where there are 32 teams, it should not be difficult to arrange a register beforehand. If Australia, Sweden and Brazil all have yellow as a home kit, then making their away kits different should not be difficult. Suppose Brazil and Sweden play. They can't very well play in solid yellow home and/or solid blue away because that would create a keeper clash.
Teams which are higher ranked before the tournament should be able to get first pick on the solid colours; but beyond that, the teams that want to play in the same colours should have to obviously differentiate themselves. An Australian kit of yellow and green vertical stripes would look different to a Sweden of of yellow and blue horizontal stripes.
If this sounds impractical, remember that Germany has played with an absolute laugh riot of red, yellow and black diamonds, as well as very a classy black stripe down the centre on occasion; and Croatia's home kit is so amazingly brilliant with its red and white chequers, that they likely don't even need an away kit.
By my count, there were 11 teams playing in red at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup; which means that even if there was a laugh riot of stripes, hoops, chequers, diamonds et cetera, that the problem would still exist. Unless there was just one kit manufacturer for the tournament (which makes Solution 1 impossible) and unless richer nations subsidise poorer nations kits (which makes Solution 2 unlikely) then Solution 3 is also a non-starter. This only leaves Solution 4.
Solution 4:
This is the decision which kit manufacturers came up with and that is to make goalkeepers' kits bespoke. Just don't sell replica goalkeepers kits to the public unless they happen to be the extreme runaway success edge case like Peter Schmeichel. Maybe the economic reality is just the sad truth.
This is also the decision which I happen to like. If a goalkeeper did become famous in their own right, such as Peter Schmeichel or legendary goalkeeper Rene Higuita, then their kits would make economic sense to sell in their own right; which given that Mary Earps is on the verge of securing that kind of legendary status, might actually be the best solution.
Mary Earps' replica England shirt to go on 'limited' sale as Nike bow to pressure from Lionesses fans
Nike admits it "did not serve fans" who wanted to buy national team goalkeeper shirts during Women's World Cup and will now stock "limited" numbers of kits for England, France, USA and Netherlands Women.
- Sky Sports, 24th August 2023.
Even with this decision, Nike still went Solution 4.
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